Change Mindsets, Change Behaviors: How C+C Makes Good on its Mission

Inside the PNW-grown agency that measures success in outcomes, not impressions.

When an older couple sent a message saying a new suicide prevention campaign was the first time they had seen their experiences authentically reflected in public messaging, Carey Evenson cried.

“It was incredibly gratifying,” said Evenson, EVP of Creative Services and Strategy at Seattle-based C+C. “It meant the strategy worked, but more importantly it meant someone felt seen.” You can watch the video and read more about the No Trouble campaign here. 

That is the kind of outcome C+C has spent nearly three decades chasing: helping people make decisions that improve their lives, strengthen communities, and create a better future.

“Bryan Cohen and Julie Colehour, our founders, started the agency with hope and a hypothesis,” Evenson said. “They believed that doing right by the environment and being good for business weren’t mutually exclusive. They’ve proved you can build an agency on purpose, making the world a better place.”

Today, that vision has grown into a 100-plus-person agency with offices in Seattle, Portland, and Boston, serving a mix of public, private, and non-profit clients. While C+C offers a full suite of services, from PR and research to branding and creative, events, and multicultural marketing, much of its work shares a common goal: changing behaviors for the better.

“Our work is focused on behavior change,” Evenson said. “We’re looking at the barriers that exist and figuring out what people need in order to act differently. Our biggest differentiator is that we’re changing hearts and minds.”

For Evenson, this is what makes her career rewarding. “Fundamentally, people want to do the right thing,” she said. “A lot of our work is about making that easier.”

Taking on the Toughest Topics

Making it easier for people to make better choices doesn’t mean tackling easy topics. C+C has made hard conversations part of the job, from public health crises to opioid overdose and suicide, leaning into the discomfort while prioritizing kindness.

The agency approaches those subjects with extensive research, specialized training, stakeholder input, and audience testing before campaigns reach the public.

“We’re never out there figuring it out on our own,” Evenson said. “We work alongside clients, subject matter experts, community members, and people with lived experience.”

That collaborative process allows the agency to create campaigns that are both bold and thoughtful. It also creates the foundation for a workplace culture where employees feel safe exploring ideas, challenging assumptions, and discussing difficult topics respectfully.

“We remind people to bring their most gentle selves,” Evenson said. “Everyone is learning, everyone brings different experiences, and our goal is always the same: helping our clients achieve meaningful outcomes.”

That care is what makes it possible to take creative risks. C+C’s youth overdose prevention campaign won Best Use of Humor at this year’s Cascadia Creative Awards, thanks to a jingle about fentanyl. Evenson was asked to sing it on stage.

“We’re not setting out to make fentanyl funny,” she said. “We’re using this format and this media in a way that our audience told us they would respond to.”

If that means stopping a 17-year-old scrolling on Snapchat long enough to learn that a pill from a friend at a party could be laced with fentanyl, it’s worth it. The campaign was tested with members of the priority audience and with the client’s subject matter experts before it launched. 

“It’s not all sneakers and hamburgers out there,” Evenson said. “There are ways to apply marketing excellence, best practices, advertising tactics, all of that to all kinds of issues.”

The Power of Place

Although C+C now operates across multiple states and serves clients nationwide, its Pacific Northwest roots have helped shape the agency’s outlook. Many of the region’s values, including environmental stewardship, public health, inclusion, and community connection, naturally align with the work C+C does every day.

“Being in a place that values public health and human rights and care for the environment really helps us do our work better. Our clients get it. And that allows us to do braver work,” Evenson said.

Take the Washington State Department of Health for example. In one campaign for the state’s umbrella opioid overdose prevention brand, Prevent Overdose WA, the team encouraged people to order free naloxone kits. 

Evenson explained the approach: “When your goal is protecting people from dying of overdose, that means talking to folks who are using opioids and helping them be safer, not trying to tell them to stop using opioids, right? Instead, it’s, ‘if you’re going to use, here are ways that you can keep yourself and your friends safer.’ We’re trying to remove stigma around these things and understand that the goal is to save lives and keep people safe, not to judge them. We’re not moralizing; we’re recognizing that everyone has value.”

Kit orders rose 98% in 13 Washington counties with the highest overdose rates. Evenson noted that causation can’t be fully proven, but the increase was correlated with the campaign’s duration.

Crunching Data, Aiming for Compassion

Data from behavior change is one of the more satisfying aspects for Evenson in this kind of work, because pre- and post-research is built in to help measure success. For C+C, success isn’t measured solely through views, clicks, or impressions. It is measured through outcomes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency helped develop vaccine communications for Washington State. Research revealed younger adults were lagging behind other demographics in vaccination rates, and further research revealed it wasn’t due to lack of belief but a lack of prioritization. They simply hadn’t gotten around to it. Rather than relying on fear-based messaging, C+C built a creative campaign, Ready for Summer, rooted in joy and social motivation. It showed older people having loads of fun, and implying FOMO for the younger adults who hadn’t yet gotten vaccinated. It worked, helping close the gap and increase participation rates. As an added bonus, it went viral on TikTok.

The same approach applies to the agency’s environmental work. C+C is helping Oregon and Colorado roll out a new recycling system in which manufacturers take more responsibility for the materials they produce. The agency branded the program Recycle On and launched it across Oregon, explaining what was changing, why it mattered, and what people should do differently. Post-launch research showed high awareness and understanding of the new brand, with 86% positive brand perception. Colorado is next.

Recycling has taken a reputational hit lately, Evenson said, as people began asking where their stuff was actually going. The new system is designed to answer that. “Does my individual action really make a difference when the system is set up in a certain way?” she said, describing the question people ask. “To be able to be part of something that puts all those pieces together in a way that everyone is doing their part and can feel like they’re making a difference; that’s pretty cool.”

Showing Up for a Stronger Creative Community

C+C’s commitment to showing up extends beyond client work. As a longtime member of NextNW, C+C has made a point of staying actively engaged in the region’s creative community through industry events, awards programs, and professional development opportunities. “I always feel better after I go to an industry event, talk with people, and see what other folks are doing,” Evenson said.

For Evenson, participation matters. “You can’t complain that there isn’t a village if you’re not willing to be a villager,” she said. “If you want a thriving creative scene and creative industry, participating and showing up is really important.”

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